Jan 09, 2023 Public Utilities Board on 2023-01-09 9:00 AM

Okay, it is nine o'clock and we have a quorum for a call to order the City of Denton Public Utilities Board meeting for Monday, January 9th, 2023. The first item is presentations from members of the public. Does anyone wish to speak? Okay, I see none. We're going to change the agenda slightly. We're going to hop into item A for items for individual consideration. So the first item is to receive nominations and hold an election for the chair, vice chair, and secretary. Do we have any nominations? Madam Chairman, I have a question. Yes. How long are the terms for the officers? One year. One year? Because every year we reelect. Okay. We didn't take care of that. I don't remember doing this last year. That's how it's like. It's a term. Didn't we just do this? We have not been taking care of that properly for many years. And I think we did it right last year, so we're going to continue. And then the next item is the calendar. We weren't approving the calendar, so now we're going to start approving the calendar. Thank you. So good question. Okay. Nominations. Unless there's anything else, I propose we keep it the same for a year. I'll second that. I second. Yeah. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Now we'll go back to the consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull an item on the consent agenda? Yes. Item C. Item C. A. And Barbara said A. Any others? All right. So before we go into that, do we have a motion to approve Items B and D? So move. Second. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Did you get who said that, Kim? It was Barbara and then Devin. Okay. We'll take Item A first. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair, board members, Krista Foster, customer service. And how can I help? I am aware of this program and know it really is quite helpful, but I will tell you that in the summertime when it gets really hot and if a landlord is paying the utilities and the tenant's supposed to be taking care of that and they don't, the landlord isn't allowed to turn the utilities off, they just have to keep paying. So help me out with that. Sure. And when a customer is setting up service at a new location, we're going to recommend for the protection of all the different parties that the person who's receiving the service is the person who signs for the service. We know that some landlords prefer to keep those as a single bill, but if they're doing that, they assume that risk of liability for creating an all bills paid situation. If the person who's residing there has services in their name and they're having trouble paying their bills, that would make them eligible for programs such as these. So that's what we would always recommend because you cannot legally, and we can't allow them to turn off because the state of Texas does not allow utilities to be shut off in order to try to force an eviction. They have to go through the legal process and get a judge's order. Sure. Okay. Thank you very much. I know that Interfaith Ministries does a really good job with this, and so I am very happy that we work with them. I'm very proud to be able to have a program that will assist all these things like this. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. I move approval. Okay. Do we have a second? Ben seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Carried. Item C. I shall await our speaker's arrival. Good morning, PUB Board. Terry Daunty, EASIS and GM at Denton and New Swatley. My question is, this was a fabulous idea and unfortunately we didn't have it in place two years ago. However, what I couldn't tell from the documentation we were provided is what the levels of coverage are they're providing, and what would trigger the application of their covering of such an outage. Sure. These quotes that we receive are based upon Ford prices that are in existence at the time, so this particular quote is a little stale, and before we actually execute the insurance binder, we'd get a refresh on it, hopefully we'd see the number go down, but the coverage limits are still being negotiated. Normally be 15 to 18 million dollars of total coverage for this premium, and the conditions upon which we could draw upon it are very simple. If there's an outage for any reason, whether it's fuel supply or mechanical failure, the first of the 12 units, so each unit's rated at 18.75 megawatts, that's a deductible amount, so we have to have an outage that would be in excess of 18.75 in order to actually file a claim. So in the event of mechanical failure, how many units at the deck would that represent? Well, let's just say we had a transmission issue, we couldn't get any power out of the plant, and it would cover all but one. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? No, ma'am. Do we have a motion to approve item C? So moved. Okay. And a second? Second. I don't know. Somebody said it. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. That carries. The next item is receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the 2023 schedule. We had a schedule that looks just fine. It's every second and fourth Monday, except for November and December. Do we have a motion to approve the schedule? So moved. Devin moved. Second? Ben, seconds? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. After approval of December 2nd, 2022 minutes, have we reviewed the minutes? Do we have a motion to approve the December 12th minutes? Second. Okay. Who seconded? You moved. Ben? Lee seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item D. I know Billy needs to recuse himself from this item. Good morning PUB board members. My name is Scott Fetig. I'm a project manager with Capital Projects, and I'm here today for the consideration of a construction contract award for Neighborhood 7A project. This project is part of the 2019 bonding program, and a little bit of the overview for this project, we will be reconstructing roadways, we'll be doing some sidewalk connectivity, along with wastewater and water upgrades as well. Some of the streets to be included in this project are Bernard, Leslie, Wisteria, and Camellia. So we advertise this project as a CSP, or competitive sealed proposal, once the evaluations were completed, Mountain Cascade came out number one with 92.8 points and a total of just over 7.6 million for cost. So overview of the schedule. We started design and completed it in August of 2022, and of course we're here today for consideration from PUB. And if so approved, we'll move forward with council on January 24th. With approval there, we anticipate a notice to proceed quarter one of 2023. And then we're estimating a final completion of quarter one 2024. And with that, we recommend consideration approval for a construction contract for Neighborhood 7A in the not to exceed amount of just over 7.6 million, which does include the 5% project contingency. And with that, I'll open it up for any questions. Yes, I have a question. These streets do not seem to be related to one another, and it seemed a little bit far removed from one another, at least on the map that you presented. I wonder if you could go back to that? Yes, sir. I'm just curious, it doesn't have anything to do with the value of the contract or, you know, the process you're on to go get approval, but I'm just curious why these particular streets, which don't seem to be particularly connected to one another, are all included in this particular package. Right. And so when they look at these, they're looking at OCMI report, of course, which is this OCMI, which is the index, the street condition, the way that the condition that the street is in. So they gauge that they take samples, they look at the street, the subgrade, what the condition looks like, and they value it that way and decide whether or not they want to put it on the bond to be reconstructed. And so they try to group it in areas so we stay in a closer area when we're doing a project. And these, all these streets kind of fell in an area that's relatively close, that all require them to be reconstructed. Okay, so these streets were strictly selected based on their evaluated condition over some period of time. Was that by the designer or by previous? By previous. So they work with the streets department in their group, they send out a contracted company that goes out and takes these samples, evaluates them, and gets that back to the street and then they combine a list and provide that to us to which streets need to be reconstructed. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Devin? Yes, sir. Hello. I have two questions. First, the project that was recently approved near Malone, I believe, was construction manager at risk as opposed to the competitive seal bid. Is there a reason why one was selected for that neighborhood and a different one was selected for this neighborhood? I may get Trevor to come up here and answer that one for me. Good morning, everybody. Trevor Crane, Director of Capital Projects. So we evaluate each of those projects really based on complexity, how big they are. Really what it comes down to is really the complexity of the project. So the CMAR is usually a little more expensive on the front end, but you get some more benefits on the back end, and so we really evaluate those and determine if using that CMAR process is really going to be worth that money on the front end. If it's really kind of a straightforward process, then we don't want to kind of spend that money on the front end if we don't necessarily need it. So we evaluate all these projects before we get to that point to determine which one's going to be the best one going forward, whether it's a CSP or that CMAR. Okay. And so in this case, this is a more straightforward project, like I guess the wastewater and water are under the roads is somewhere. Correct, yeah. And so we look at a whole lot of different things, so complexity of what the work is, kind of coordination with different projects that are in the area, coordination with stakeholders, really a lot of things that go in it. So we felt this was a perfect project for a competitive sale proposal instead of the CMAR. And so going forward, we might see both depending on each neighborhood. You will. Yeah, you'll definitely see some. We do have one coming up that's, I think it's 60 million south, or we have two projects that we're going to bundle together because they're very similar work, a lot of coordination, and you will see CMAR. So you'll see both of those, both of those different styles coming forward. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. And my other question was regarding the project scope mentioned, sidewalk connectivity. Yes, sir. But it doesn't indicate kind of wear or scale. Yeah, I can elaborate on it a little bit. The major connectivity that we're going to see is on Bernard Street. So right now from Parvin there at Edenia Park, it moves north there on the west side of Bernard. We're going to connect that all the way up to Acme, or that there's a piece of it there that just went anew on the east side of Bernard, and we're going to make that a complete connectivity all the way down the park to give them a little safer area for people walking between the park and that area. And is that a one side of the street? Okay, so everything will be on the west side of Bernard from Parvin all the way up to Acme. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Other questions? All right. Do we have a motion to approve? So move. Devin moves. Do we have second? Lee seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. And I'll go find Billy, hang on. The next item is to consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance for the construction of Hickory Creek Interceptor 3 project. Good morning, bird members. My name is Tracy Beck. I'm a project manager with Capital Projects, and today I'd like to discuss a little bit about the Hickory Creek Interceptor Phase 3 with you. Excuse me, ma'am, could you speak up a little bit? I sure can. Thank you. I'll speak in a little bit. Hickory Creek Interceptor Phase 3 is Phase 3. It is continuation of the Phase 1 and 2 on the south end near I-35W, extends approximately 9,700 feet, about 1.8 miles to the north. The project is going to be a 30-inch replacement of an existing 12-inch main. The purpose is because the 12-inch is undersized and a little bit aging. The project was designed in-house. We went out for competitive sealed proposals for this project. The recipients were approximately seven of our bidders, and Wilson Contracting was the lowest on scoring, and they were very close on the lowest of overall price as well. The scoring was 88.2 out of 100. The final dollar amount that they presented was 5.7 million and some change, and that includes the 5% contingency. The project's been underway for some years, and we're finally getting it to construction. We have completed the design. We've completed the background work. Today is awarding as well as going to council at the end of the month, and then we look to doing notice of proceed in the first quarter of this year. The project's approximately 13 months long, so we look for having that completed about this time next year, say second quarter of 2024. With that, I'm recommending the award to Wilson Contracting for a bid amount of 5.5 million and some change. That includes the contingency of 5%. Any questions? Questions? Yes. Go ahead, Lee. Why did you decide to do this particular project in-house on design? This was actually designed prior to when I took over, and it's just a legacy project that we're moving out. At some point, I believe that when we look at our staff load, we do like using our internal staff. There's benefits to using internal staff as well. Oh, certainly, I don't have a problem with it. I was just curious. We approved so many design and engineering evaluation contracts. It was just interesting this one was designed in-house, so it's a curiosity question. Trevor Crane, Director of Capital Projects. As these projects come forward from the different stakeholders, we have a process set up where myself and our Deputy City Engineer will evaluate those projects. He runs our in-house engineering department, so depending on what that project looks like, the complexity, whether they have the workload availability, or anything like that, we evaluate those projects and determine, one, we'll make a recommendation to the stakeholder, "Hey, we think this is going to be better for an external project." We look at the schedule that they need, the pricing that is available, funding, those types of things, and whether his team has the availability to do it in-house or not. We evaluate all those projects as they come through from the stakeholders to determine the best path forward. Oh, is it the fact that you are basically improving existing infrastructure, make it a little easier lift in the in-house town? Yeah, this project is really just that 30-inch line. Our engineering team has a lot of experience in designing those types of things. They designed some of the previous ones before, and they had the availability to be able to design it rather quickly, so it just made sense to allow them to do that in-house. Thank you. Yes, sir? I have just one quick, I see we had seven bidders. There was a time when we would not be able to get people to bid, so are things finally loosening up a little bit, where we're getting more ... Yeah, I would say we are seeing a lot of different contractors coming in to bid. This one was, since it was just mainly that one type of work, so you'll see when we bundle a lot of these projects and we have a lot of different types of work in those, then sometimes we don't get as many because they'll have to sub some of those things out. I would say just the complexity of this work is one of the things that allowed it to have that many. I would also say that just the changes that have been made in the last couple of years with the city of Denton, I think a lot of contractors are wanting to get in town and do a lot of work with us just because of some of the things that we've done, the way we deliver projects, and just been a lot easier to work with. Oh, good. That's good for the citizens. Definitely, definitely. Yeah. All right. Any other questions? All right. Do we have a motion to approve item E? Yes. Ben moved. Lee seconded. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you very much. Management reports. Madam Chair, members of the POB, just to go over future agenda items, obviously we had the officer elections, appreciate that. There was a couple of items listed for today that did not make today's agenda. We are working to get those back to you likely for the next meeting or early February, but on the Lyft station and also the budget and rates for electric, it'll be more of a financial update. And then on the 23rd, we still have scheduled the Greensense program update. We are kind of working through that still. We're still planning to go back to the sustainability committee as a follow up. Our plan is to bring kind of the two presentations that we planned for them and single presentation to you. At the end of the day, we're going to be seeking a recommendation from both the POB and sustainability committee on the Greensense program to go to the council, probably likely in May now or after May. So we'll have plenty of time if there's a need for us to come back and do additional discussions with you, we'll have time to do that. But those are the items on the agenda. Obviously, what's not listed on here is the various budgets for you. We'll be listing those out for the next meeting, but we have kick started some of those processes already internally for all the utilities. So that's on the future agendas and the new business, we still have the first two items that are related to the Greensense program. We hope to be able to address those with you through that process. And there was a request at the last meeting for an update on the ERCOT lawsuit. And we're arguing that the day in closed session after we do this meeting, we'll be meeting downstairs with the city attorney's office. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions or there's something else that you'd like to see on a future agenda. Please let us know. Okay. That brings us to concluding items. Does any board member wish to add a future agenda item or have anything to say? Seeing none. Okay. And we'll go into the closed meeting and legal gave me a nice little thing that I can say. The Public Utilities Board will now at 921 a.m. convene into a closed meeting to deliberate the closed meeting item set forth on the agenda, which include the following. APUB 23008, deliberations regarding certain public power utilities competitive matters under Texas government code section 551.086, consultation with attorneys under U.S. Texas government code section 551.071.